Elon Musk surprises us again, this time through a project Neuralink whose objective is to design microchips that allow the stimulation of both motor and sensory neurons, a technological advance that would be of great benefit, especially for those people who have problems when walking, such as paraplegics.
Neuralink implants chips in a monkey's brain
On this occasion we bring you a new project that is undoubtedly very interesting, which is in the hands of Neuralink and basically focuses on implanting chips in the brain of a monkey, with which the animal has managed to demonstrate the ability to play a video game using only your thoughts.
These chips are located on each side of your brain, and the video game chosen for this sample is Pong, a popular game known by many of our readers thanks to the great popularity it acquired in the past.
In the video that we embed below, you can see how the monkey manages to play pong with his mind and some simple controls that are actually deactivated:
The reason that the monkey is still playing with the controls is because, in order to develop the project, the first thing that had to be done was to get the monkey to learn to play Pong manually, since obviously, if put up a screen with a game and nothing to interact with, it was evident that the chips were going to be of absolutely no use.
Once the monkey learned to play with the controls, they were then deactivated, so that the only thing that remained activated were the chips that had been implanted in its brain.
In this way, although the monkey thinks it is playing with the controls, in reality it is giving the orders directly with its own brain.
The objective of the Neuralink project
Many technological advances have the objective of helping us solve problems that, today, seem impossible to overcome, as is the case in this Neuralink project, in which the team of Elon Musk wants to help paraplegic people so that they can move again in the near future.
However, it must be taken into account that it will still take a long time to achieve this goal, since it is a project that is currently in its infancy.
However, the first thing that will be achieved is that paraplegic people will be able to use elements of daily life with their minds, such as they will be able to use a smartphone without the need to use their hands, and even faster than anyone else. do with our thumbs.
From here, the objective will continue to be to manage brain signals through different systems that allow mobility to be restored to people who have lost it or have never had it before.
An important advantage is the fact that these chips are implanted flush with the skull, that is, it is not a high-risk surgical operation, and it also has a wireless charging system.
Thanks to this, no one will see the chip, and even the person who has it implanted will not notice it, which are two more great advantages considering the fantastic results that can be achieved.
Ultimately, Neuralink and Elon Musk have begun an essential journey that will change the quality of life of millions of people around the world, and it seems that the results could begin to arrive in just a few years.
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